Kyiv end Everton’s Europa bid
Dynamo Kyiv shattered Everton’s hopes of restoring English pride with a ruthless 5-2 demolition of the Premier League side in the Europa League last 16 on Thursday.
After Arsenal and Manchester City were eliminated from the Champions League this week, Everton went into the second leg in Kyiv as the only English club still flying the flag in Europe this season.
But Roberto Martinez’s team fared no better than their domestic rivals as they were swept away by a first-half goal spree from Kyiv, who eventually ran out 6-4 aggregate winners.
“A couple of times we made some defensive mistakes but there was also some incredible finishing from the opposition,” Martinez said.
“I agree there were instances when we could have defended better but there is not a lot you can do about goals that go right into the top corner.
“It was the kind of night where everything they tried went into the back of the net.”
Elsewhere, Italian sides Napoli and Fiorentina weathered the away legs of their ties to reach the last eight, Napoli drawing 0-0 at Dymamo Moscow and Fiorentina stunning Italian rivals AS Roma 3-0 to go through 4-1 on aggregate.
Trailing 2-1 from last week’s first leg, Dynamo Kyiv took the lead through Andriy Yarmolenko and, although Romelu Lukaku equalised for Everton, it was Sergei Rebrov’s side who were the dominant force.
Lukasz Teodorczyk and Miguel Veloso struck before halftime and Oleg Gusev and Vitorino Antunes netted in the second half to bring a suitably downbeat conclusion to a woeful season for Premier League teams in Europe.
Martinez had been concerned about the state of the Olympic Stadium pitch and opted not to train his players on the surface on the eve of the tie.
But it was Everton’s dismal defending, rather than any issues with the turf, that ended their bid to reach a first European quarter-final since 1985.
The Ukrainian league leaders were on top from the start and their opening goal arrived in spectacular fashion in the 21st minute.